backFive tips to beat white page fright

You know the feeling – the report is due (overdue, actually), you are staring at the screen, and you’ve no idea where to start. Here’s a few tips to help you face down the empty white page.

1. Get something – anything – down on paper. Give yourself a limited time to do it, and just keep writing. Don’t edit or fuss with it too much. You can cull, sort and order it later. Once you start to get some thoughts out of your head and down on the page you will start to see patterns and themes emerging. Just don’t mistake this writing frenzy for your first draft. It’s a ‘thinking sheet’. Create a separate document from your intended end product, and call it ‘notes’ or ‘brainstorming’ so you won’t be tempted to massage it into being the document.

2. Talk to the chair. Put a chair in front of you – literally or figuratively, as you wish. Pretend your intended audiences are sitting on (and around) it, then explain to them what you are planning to write. As you talk, the thread of your ‘story’ should become clear. Picture what they would want to know, what they are likely ask, and how they might react. When you have that clarity, you are ready to write.

3. Use a mind map. If you’re a visual person, get out some pens or find an online mind mapping tool and get creative. Start with the key idea in a box in the middle of the page, white board or screen, and go on from there – drawing more boxes as the ideas flow. Draw lines to show which ideas link together. It’ll help you sort out what you know already, what you need to explore further, and what the key themes are. Hopefully, it will generate some fresh thinking. Get others to join in if you’re stuck.

4. Do an outline. Write down the main topics you need to cover, then sort and prioritise them. Get rid of the ones that don’t fit. See if there’s anything missing. Order them and group them based on what your audience would need or be most interested in first.

5. Bite off what you can chew. Not every day’s a writing day, but if the deadline’s looming, leaving it all to the last minute is not going to go well. If you can only manage a bit, just do a bit. It’s funny how the bits stack up. And sometimes, you just have to glue your bum to the seat and write! Damn it.